Museum of Music - Permanent Collection

A national museum rich in a collection of nearly 9,000 instruments and works of art, the Museum of Music is fully integrated into the daily life of the Philharmonie, fueling its heritage ambition. The Museum preserves one of the most important instrument collections in the world, in terms of both the rarity and the diversity of its objects.

The Museum's new exhibition trail unfolds a vast history of music around the world, from the late 16th century to the present day. The collection illustrates the musical "modernity" explored in Europe, from the Renaissance to contemporary and electronic experiments. At the same time, it highlights the richness and vitality of musical cultures in Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. With this new, more inclusive museography, the trail promotes the reconnection of musical heritages around the world, while illustrating their historical developments and contemporary dynamics.

The scenography includes multimedia devices. A musician, present in the Museum every day, brings this trail to life. They play, talk about their instrument, and interact with the public. During concert-walks or musical storytelling sessions organized on Sunday afternoons, all the spaces buzz with words and sounds. At any time, a visit to the Museum, open to all, young and old, is a true musical experience!

Polyphony

The trail begins with a vast cabinet of curiosities, celebrating the diversity of the Museum's collection. Musical instruments from many eras and origins sit alongside paintings, sculptures, or luthier's tools. These objects are remarkable for the craftsmanship of their creators, their unusual shapes or decorations, their connection to figures from the musical world, or their historical importance.

Music and Power

In the 17th century, from Mantua to Versailles, as well as in Northern India or the Ottoman Empire, a refined court music developed in service of the sovereigns. The model of the Mantua palace hall evokes the 1607 performance of Claudio Monteverdi's L'Orfeo, considered the first opera in history. A unique collection of instruments bears witness to the musical practices of the time: keyboards, lutes, cornetts, citterns...

At the Palace of Versailles, Louis XIV fostered the flourishing of Baroque music. At the same time, the worlds of art, particularly instrument making, benefited from the rise of trade routes connecting the continents. Patterns and materials circulated as much as the objects themselves: ivory, ebony, mother-of-pearl, or tortoiseshell can be found on European viols and guitars, just as on the prestigious instruments of the Mughal courts.

The Imagination of the Enlightenment

In the 18th century in France, music gradually left the court. The salons of cultured aristocrats and bourgeois favored the rise of instrumental music. Harpsichord and harp were played... The era was also marked by an idealized vision of nature, which gave rise to a vogue for pastoral music among cultured societies.

"Africanerie" and "chinoiserie" decorations and the "alla turca" musical style emerged in a context of exploration, trade, and also slavery. The evolution of musical taste towards greater expressivity favored the appearance of a new instrument, the piano-forte. Public concerts developed, including those of the Concert Spirituel, welcoming renowned foreign musicians like Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

The Empire of Music

The violin, which occupies a central place in the European classical repertoire and orchestra, has traveled and spread to all continents. A double display case highlights its transcultural history and celebrates the violins of Antonio Stradivari preserved in the Museum.

Solo performance and the rise of the symphony orchestra constitute the two poles of instrumental music in 19th-century Europe. Driven by the growing needs for orchestral tone and power, particularly those of Hector Berlioz and Richard Wagner, new instruments were born: the octobass, the saxophone, the Wagner tuba...

Virtuoso composers and pianists Franz Liszt and Frédéric Chopin, linked to piano makers Érard and Pleyel, embody the figure of the romantic musician. Orientalism appeared, particularly in opera, where oriental-inspired sounds were highlighted by spectacular sets and costumes.

Exploring the Unheard

Edgard Varèse's work Ionisation (1931) illustrates how percussion opened up an unprecedented sound field in the 20th century, while new musical languages were invented. The appearance of electricity also revolutionized music with the invention of new instruments, notably by Léon Theremin, Maurice Martenot, or Laurens Hammond.

The technological upheaval of analog and then digital tools is represented in the Museum by the 116 C console of the Groupe de Recherche Musicale, the Upic machine by Iannis Xenakis, or the 4X computer developed by IRCAM. Popular music has fully benefited from these technical revolutions. Simultaneously, the rise of recording and globalization has facilitated access to music from other regions of the globe, from Russian folklore to Javanese gamelan. A gallery dedicated to the electric guitar presents legendary models of guitars and basses from Fender, Gibson, or Rickenbacker.

Musics and Worlds

The highlight of the Museum's refurbishment, the final space renews the exhibition and discourse on the instrumental heritage of Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Bypassing a strictly geographical and ethnographic approach, the setup directs attention towards the unique history of the objects, made of musician-humans, social and cultural practices engaged with the most diverse imaginations, now globalized.

From the history of the banjo connecting Africa and the Americas to the global destiny of the Hawaiian guitar; from the diasporic trajectory of the Gnawa musicians of Morocco to that of the griots of West Africa: the archipelago of stories deployed translates the historical depth of instrumental heritage across the world, but also its contemporary dynamic, under the effect of cultural interactions and hybridization processes.

Pierre Henry Studio - open Wednesday to Sunday

Since 2019, the Museum of Music has housed the instruments, equipment, and objects of Pierre Henry's Studio Son/Ré in a new space. At the dawn of the 1950s, Pierre Henry committed to research into experimental lutherie. Collected noises and sounds replaced notes to be edited and transformed by machines, then broadcast on speakers. A sound sculptor, Pierre Henry very early on became a reference for many composers. His studio, reconstituted within the permanent collection of the Museum of Music, invites the visitor to understand his place in history and to experiment, through sound manipulation, with his imprint on contemporary music.

The Amusette

The Amusette is a bag of games loaned free of charge to children aged 2 to 4, to discover the Museum in a fun way. Entrusted to parents at the start of the visit, the Amusette brings together three games, an MP3 player specially designed for toddlers, and an explanatory booklet. Memory, duo puzzles, little storybooks... parents and children will recognize familiar games, highlighting certain works in the Museum. Small, simple-to-handle, and fun instruments complete the kit. Finally, thanks to the MP3 player, children can listen to musical excerpts played in some cases on instruments from the collection. A fun, simple, and adapted way for the child's pace to visit the Museum of Music!

Muséojeux

The Muséojeux bag is loaned free of charge to families with children from the age of 4 to discover the collection while playing!

The Museum of Music and the association Môm'art offer a new tool for the visit, the muséojeux. These bags full of fun activities to do as a family enliven the trail in the Museum and make everyone, regardless of their age, an actor in their own discovery. Mimes, riddles, drawing, musical quizzes... through play, observation, and listening, the twelve cards contained in the Muséojeux bag raise awareness of the works in the collection, while fostering exchanges between parents and children!